The World’s 10 Most Expensive Food

Think caviar is the most expensive food in the world? Well think again! Turns out it is only the ninth most expensive

1. Densuke watermelons

Hailing from Hokkaido, Japan, there are only 100 of these €300 per kilo black watermelons grown every year. In 2014 one melon was sold for a whopping €2,200

2. Kobe Beef

Retailing at up to 500€ per kilo the fatty and intensely marbled Japanese Kobe beef, also known as “wagyu”, is the fine wine of the steak kingdom

3. Matsutake Mushrooms

Still hailing from, and probably only really available in, Japan, these precious mushrooms can retail for up to 1000€ per kilo. Their demand seems more attributed to symbolic value than to actual taste.

4. Kopi Luwak Coffee

At 900€ a kilo not only is this Indonesian coffee by far the most expensive in the world, it is also the only one that has to be digested and then excreted by a ferret before it is roasted and turned into coffee.

5. Swallow’s Nest Soup

Selling at €600-2’500 per kilo, the valuable nests are created by the hardened strands of the swift bird’s saliva. They come in a variety of colours but the white and red nests are the most prized.

6. White Truffles

Originating in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, these fancy mushrooms recently reached an all-time high €6,000 per kilo.

7. Elvish Honey

Considered to be the most expensive honey sold at €5,000 per kilo as it is harvested in tree hollows by the pure wild European black bee in Russia. It’s made of linden and regular plants, from an unpolluted high altitude zone and collected only once a year.

8. Yubari Canataloups

Sold at €200-10,000 this specific variety of melon is a hybrid between two types of cantaloupe which is produced in a certain region in Yubari, Japan.

9. Almas Caviar

Precious fish eggs from the Danube sturgeon, extracting them is a very delicate process. They are packed in a 24 carat gold tin and sold only in Caviar House and Prunier in London’s Piccadilly for a price of £18,000 per kg.

10. Saffron Spice

Extracted from the saffron crocus flower and grown worldwide. Just one pound of dry saffron requires 50,000 to 75,000 flowers and because of the huge labour force, the price ranges from €1,000 to 10,000 per kg.